Inside Look
by and care
Summary: Because as he looked over his shoulder one more time in hopes of catching a last glimpse of the woman he loved, he saw that she was already tucked safely beneath the arm of somebody else. Perhaps the embrace was purely comradely, but he doubted it.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bones. Thus I don't own any of the characters depicted in this "story". I mean no disrespect to anyone, I'm just a fan.

**AN: **Inside Look is nothing but a collection of thoughts written out as I felt them. I really love writing these things, and so I've got a ton more that I could put up here. Just R/R and let me know, I didn't want to waste my time if everyone just totally hated it.

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Although Sully had hoped in the moment of their parting that this seperation was a very temporary thing, nothing more than a blink in time's eyes, he now had a hard time believing it. Because as he looked over his shoulder one more time in hopes of catching a last glimpse of the woman he loved, he saw that she was already tucked safely beneath the arm of somebody else. Perhaps the embrace was purely comradely, but he doubted it. Doubted it so severely that he found himself shaking his head, not in grief for what he had given up, but in fear that he could never, ever get it back. He could only frown and lean against his boat, hoping that if she looked at him now as he sailed away for newer places, that she would not have a smile on her face...no matter how beautiful she was when she smiled. Dimly, he recalled that expression. The way it lit up her defined features, showcasing the blatant perfection that was her entirety. He would remember and pray for new memories, some of equal greatness, and some that were maybe, just maybe, about anyone _but_ Temperance Brennan.

On shore, Bones smiled.

Booth's arm was wrapped around her, resting comfortably on her shoulders, and although she knew that this gesture was nothing more than a friendly one, she couldn't help but find a brief glimmer of hope in it. Just as she couldn't help but grin when he looked down at her with that cocky little smirk lifting the edges of his lips. Loss was never a terribly easy thing to deal with, it was an awful feeling that sat in the pit of her stomach, stewing there until she was spurred nearly to the brink of crying again, but she couldn't seem to do that now. Even if behind her Sully was leaving, even if she wouldn't see him for months- or even longer than that. There were plenty of emotions that Seeley Booth stirred inside of her, lots that she couldn't even seem to pinpoint or name, but sadness was not one of them. There was happiness, amusement, sometimes anger, and a chemical reaction that her brain hated to define, even if she understood what it was in reality.

She hadn't always known that she loved him, hadn't actually accepted that as the bonafide truth until the conversation she'd had with Sully the previous week. He'd defined the terms of a love, of a serious relationship, he had told her that what they had was real. At the time she had done anything but disagree, she hadn't possessed the energy it would've required to explain her feelings to him. That yes, those terms were true, but that she didn't feel them for him. That she did wake up thinking about someone, went to bed with him in mind, spent nearly every moment thinking about either him or bones. It was funny that she didn't realize what those things meant while they were happening, the relevance of Booth's face and voice lurking inside of her brain constantly inside her mind, until someone else explained it to her. More amusing still, was the oddity that it'd come from the lips of someone that'd believed so devoutly, that she was feeling such things for him. Sully was a good man, he had never done anything but give himself to her in the most genuine of ways, but that didn't mean that she really loved him.

So when Booth suggested that anything was possible, what she wanted to happen eventually would, as long as she was patient enough to wait, she could only smile wider. Smile and hope that he was referring to the things she needed to feel, experience, things that she had written off as impossible following Cam's hospital stay. After he'd told her that relationships between co-workers could never work, that they only forced danger onto people that you cared about, put them into positions that they didn't deserve. Sometimes you give up one your dreams without ever really letting go of them, you hold onto them desperately and pray that one day you will be able to take them back into your heart. And maybe there was light at the end of the tunnel, maybe this wasn't just stupidity, maybe that smirk on his face was more than just cockiness, maybe it meant something. And maybe if she didn't let go entirely, anything really was possible.


End file.
